madasascientist

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:06:00 +0000

Hello...

I will be moving things to the following blog:

http://www.aotbe.blogspot.com

many thanks!

Johan

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:32:00 +0000

In The End
I am sitting sipping coffee on the morning of my last day in Quito. The saga ends... 133 days in Ecuador and a whole load of data. Work in the second community of 'Cascabel 2' went relatively smoothly. The community of 2,000 ha is small compared to the almost 16,000 ha of Verde Sumaco and much closer to the town of Loreto, which is where the markets are. We worked fast and well, managing to finish our sampling in exactly 20 days. The only event was a dog-bit to Nick's leg. Luckily the bite was small and nothing more than scratch but the owners of the dog could not produce a vaccination card, which meant that we had to get Nick to the hospital to get a series of rabies vaccinations. We arrived at the small Health Center of Loreto on the night of that day but got told that we had to go to Coca to get the shots. I had spoken to the Epidemiologist of the province of Orellana a few weeks before about photographing some of the health issues related to Oil pollution as well as HIV and prostitution and called him to confirm that Nick could, in deed, get the shots in Coca. Otherwise we would have had to fly Nick to Quito which would have meant a delay of about a week. Luckily the Hospital in Coca had the vaccines and Nick braved a daily 3hr commute on the back of a truck for 7 days to get his shots (which by the way, go into the stomach). He managed to make it there and back for the sampling and we didn't loose a day. For that I am truly thankful ... "Chapeau". One of the things that struck be about the community of 'Cascabel 2' is that the noise of chainsaws was constant and when I asked how many people owned a chainsaw the answer I got was everybody.
After finishing our stint in 'Cascable 2', we spent a few days in Coca and travelled to Tena where I had been scheduled to give a talk. We spent a few days relaxing in Tena and then headed back to Coca to make our way into the Park. We had arranged to hire a canoe from Verde Sumaco and asked Raul (our incredibly hard working and motivated guide in Verde Sumaco) to come and work with us in the Park. We met as arranged via radio communication (this is a wonderful system - there's a local radio station in Coca which broadcasts to the surrounding area and if you want to send out a message to one of the communities you go to the station, pay $1 and ask them to relay the message - here's the part that is amazing - EVERYBODY in the 100 or so communities living in the area listen to the radio station) to meet in the community of San José de Payamino, where we would head up the river Payamino for a couple of hours and then go up the river Bigay to where the Park is. We had arranged for Eliberto, one of the local residents of Payamino and one of the 12 national park wardens to show us the way. On the way we saw the president of the community and I decided to stop and tell him that we were going to the Park. That was a bad mistake. The president was obviously drunk and didn't like it one bit that we were passing through the territory without permission. Now you might think fair enough it's their land, but here's the deal. First of all; we were on official park business and the community has no jurisdiction over the park - see the Ministry of the Environment. Waterways belong to the state and are thus free to navigate - the illegal part here would be to extract resources without permission - see dynamite fishing. Secondly, we were with Eliberto, one of the Park wardens and a resident of the community; why he had not told anyone we were coming is still a mistery to me. The park had a guard house on the communities territory, built with the agreement of the community and with the purpose of serving as an entry point to that area of the park. The reason for hiring a canoe was that the canoe of the park broke whilst we were in Verde Sumaco, which meant that whilst we where sampling in Verde Sumaco we needed a canoe and knowing that we were also going need a canoe to sample inside the park we decided to arrange current and future use of a canoe whilst we had the chance. I had been quoted $400 for a single trip on a canoe from Coca to Verde Sumaco (which I though was a ridiculous rip off and quite insulting really - a new canoe and a new motor would cost $4000 which would mean that a canoe and motor only had a lifetime of 10 trips). In the end we turned back - a decision which costed me a lot of money in gasoline, waisted food and broken promises to the guides plus the stay in the hotel in Coca, which is not cheap and ended up being a lot longer than I had hoped for. We ended up sorting things out with the people of park, who returned with us to the community to set things straight (I felt a little bit like I had been bullied and had to get my older brother). The important part here is that this could set a precedent, where the park itself needs to ask for permission to pass through the community to enter the park meaning that the community itself gets control of who enters the park and the park itself. In the end we had to hire the people from the community of Payamino to work with us and since we were short of time we had to work more intensely than we had done previously. But we finished sampling and I have to say that I leave Ecuador having fulfilled all the goals I has set out at the beginning of the field season. I am happy and ready to go home.

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:40:00 +0000

Various Notes:

It has been a while since my last post, which was just after the first part of the University of Manchester field course. The rest of the field course, which took place in the Community of San José de Payamino in the Ecuadorian Amazon went very very well. The group of students we had this year was very very motivated and I was given the all clear to head a small expedition into some more remote forest, which I think all the students enjoyed.

Since then I have been running around like mad. I headed back to Quito after the field course finished and spent a night there getting Richard (my boss) to go through some last minute statistics with me. I then flew back to lovely Coca to conduct some follow up interviews and present some of the preliminary results of my study in the Communities I had visited last year and then headed up to Tena for a meeting with the National Park people and to lead a community based fern biodiversity monitoring workshop we organized with the German Development Service.

The workshop went better than I could have expected, despite the logistical difficulties logistics of trying to organize a research project with 20 people. I also organized the logistics of my research internship with the GTZ, which started on the first of September. In late August I headed back to Quito to give a seminar at the FLACSO.

On the 23rd I picked up Nick, my new field assistant and after 3 days of intense shopping in Quito we flew back to Coca to head to Verde Sumaco, where we spent 27 days sampling ferns, frogs and beetles and conducting household interviews to get an idea of how the community works. The community is four and a half hours up the river Paushi Yacu. We worked fast and very well with the help of Raúl Shiguango, our guide and also the help of the two park wardens. We also ended up camping in some remote forest for a week, which was an interesting experience in itself and a relief from the 3 AM wake up calls from both the community of roosters living under our hut and the generator at the neighbors house.

The site we camped at was our plan B. Plan A was a small hut a further 4 hours upstream along a very small river called the Puru Yacu. The water was so low that we spent a good few hours digging trenches and removing stones and gravel to be able to pull and push the canoe up the river. After about 3 hours we decided that the location was too remote and the river to low to be able to pull someone out in case of an emergency. Instead we camped half an hour upstream from the community and the hiked to the sites where planned to sample. The distance was not very far but the terrain very though and it usually took us 45 min. to walk 1.5 km.

We are now back in Coca and were supposed to head to the new community today, but due to technical difficulties, we will not head out until tuesday next week. It gives us a few more days to sort out all our gear and relax before some more very heavy fieldwork.

Pristimantis ockendeni & Pristimantis variabilis

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 22:42:00 +0000

Back in Ecuador

Time flies (yes, we all know that but the more - or longer it flies, the more things end up on the "to-do-list"). There's is quite of things I have been meaning to post and have found no time to do so. Unfortunately posts end up being like the ubiquitous desk drawer which ends up with all the random bits of stuff that a) don't seem to rightly fit anywhere else or b) have been forcefully stuffed in there during a hurried attempt to bring the chaos on the desk under temporary control.

Firstly and perhaps most importantly: I am now back in Ecuador.
Breakfast of Champions: Courtesy of AirFrance

I arrived two weeks ago and the months prior to this latest round self-imposed exile have gone from busy to absolutely insane. The item at the top of my list was to find a field assistant. This was highly successful since a) I now have an assistant and b) we received over 60 applications for the position. It was interesting going through the whole selection process but this time from the other side. The first couple of days in Quito were spent trying to sort out my research permits and going through the visa application ordeal (I spent the last two days in Manchester trying to get a CRB -Criminal Records Background Check done, as well as getting a medical certificate from the University Health and Safety people in case they asked for them). Usually it feels like being told that all your teeth need root canal treatment but this time it went smoothly and I was only asked to provide one extra set of photocopies of some documents that I had with me. I was able to pop down to the conveniently located photocopying and laminating stall outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then jump the queue.

I will hopefully be working alongside the German Development Agency, which will be very interesting since it provides a link between the sometimes theoretically centered world of academia and the 'on the ground' development community. It might also provide some extra funding to add to the postgraduate research grant I was recently awarded before coming out here.

The schedule for the next couple of weeks looks pretty busy. We have just come back from Bellavista, a small cloud forest reserve to the west of Quito which is the first step of the University of Manchester Tropical Ecology and Biodiversity Field Course. The idea of the course is to introduce second year Life Sciences students to the Biodiversity Hotspot that is Ecuador, give them a taste of some of the research techniques used in the field and expose them to some of the current research issues related to conservation and sustainability. Tomorrow we head out to Coca, our entry point to the Amazon Basin. It is one of my favourite places in Ecuador. Coca's entire economy relies on the Oil Industry and it is not exactly what you would associate with the word picturesque but it has the character that imagine the old Yukon to have had.

The Students during an exercise measuring Fern-Biodiversity

Moths and various miscellaneous insects to a white sheet and a light

Taking a closer look

One of the hawk-moths (Sphingidae) on the sheet

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 12:37:00 +0000

Miscellanous

Well... I have been back in Manchester for more than a month now. March came and went relatively uneventfully, except for the week of for my birthday when Misty and I went skiing with some friends of ours in Switzerland. The whole affair was a cathartic experience after months of stress. Being at home has been fantastic after all the coming and going and I am now slowly getting ready to organize my second field season which starts in July, it feels like I have only just got back. I have analyzed most of the data from last years field season and filled my head with new statistical techniques which has been painful but great. I think the effort has been worthwhile and I am currently trying to prepare some of it for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. I am also looking out for a new field assistant. Nathan, who accompanied me on last years adventures is still recovering from his treatment of leishmaniasis and unfortunately won't be coming with me. The treatment is quite hardcore pretty and basically consists of a daily blast of antimonials, which are heavy-metals. He will be missed but I'll post an advert soon, so if you are interested - look out!

Nathan's Leishmaniasis

I have been approaching galleries and the Manchester Museum to see whether they are potentially interested in my project. I went for a portfolio review at the Impressions Gallery with the current exhibiting artist Margareta Kern who is a showing a series of images entitled Clothes for Living and Dying. I am not always a big fan of this portfolio reviews because most of the time people just stare at you blankly, say thank you very much but this is not our cup of tea. Overall the review went well and they were quite encouraging. They were quite interested in the idea of incorporating data into an exhibition and made me think about the kinds of questions that I was asking and how I was going to use photography to answer them. I am not always a big fan of a lot of conceptual art because I find that in many cases the concept gets lost in the delivery of the end product. I believe that if your concept doesn't translate to the viewer then the point of having a fantastic and solid conceptual framework is lost. Transpose this to science: -if you fail to explain your research to others you have failed to contribute to the collective intelligence. The crux of the problem being that many scientists have a hard time and are incapable of explaining complex concepts to the public or to people from other scientific backgrounds. In photography (and medium format photography in particular) this often leads of to a series of beautiful photographs with (as far as my limited understanding of the analysis is concerned) little depth - sadly, the concept of 'style' seems to vanish and many series end up looking very similar. Disclaimer: I could be missing the point entirely, which wouldn't really surprise me. I am a scientist in training, not a successful photographer, or editor or curator - so my opinion is one with no influence and no particular intent. My plan is to develop some of my ideas further and then see where that takes me.

From the series 'Clothes for Living and Dying' by Margareta Kern

When thinking about how to incorporate data into photography I was reminded about a piece on biofuels with some photographs by Rob Clarke that was published in October 2007 in National Geographic. In September 2008 there was another interesting piece on soil by Jim Richardson. I really like both of them because they manage to put a scientific twist on photography in the field. Rob Clarke took some wonderful shoots of crops growing in a field in and isolating an individual plant with a white background. Jim Richardson dug a trench and photographed the soil in such a way that you get the impression that he has actually dissected it. He adds the human element by incorporating the people using the land (and soil) in the photographs (they are perched above the trench).

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:48:00 +0000

Lisa Corewyn posted this a comment on the blog (and I thank her for doing so) but think it will get more exposure as post than as a comment (this is the full link to it). It is self explanatory. Except for expressing my condolences any comment of mine is superfluous:

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:16:00 +0000

Coca - Payamino - Coca
I arrived in Coca on wednesday afternoon. The first thing that I saw was big tankers on the street, filling up the water tanks of houses. Coca is officially in a state of emergency. Every day at 6.30 am tankers supplied by OCP, fill up with water from the river Payamino and then make the rounds of the city. Here´s the irony, the tankers that supply water usually transport oil. Drinking water is being supplied by Coca Cola and paid by OCP - corporate to the core. Luckily, the authorities gave warning of the spill in time and virtually nobody has fallen sick. When I spoke the mayoress today, she said... "luckily we knew how to react, this happened last year too so we have some previous experience". Yesterday we visited the community of Huataracu, which is about one an hour away and on the banks of the rio Coca, we were not able to speak to anyone. Not only is the community vast but they have also agreed to let the Petrobras set up shop and most of it is actually behind the checkpoint, which we were of course not allowed to pass. We went down to the river bank to have a look and although you can not see large chunks of crude oil it is obvious that the river is in bad shape. It is covered by a thin layer of oil and since the river has been going up and down because of heavy rains the banks are covered in a thin sheen. Ali, Sumiko (two volunteers currently working in San Jose de Payamino) and I accompanied the mayoress on a trip upstream with the OCP engineer in charge of the clean up in this area (there more than a 2ookm of river that have been affected by the spill) and it was interesting to see how the discussion between the two, since one was down playing the impact of the spill while the other was criticising the slow response and the lack of personel (apparently 50 people are working on the clean up operation, but it we saw less than of half of that actively on the river). Most of the operation was centered on filtering the oil off the water with specifically designed foam filters which are stretched out on the surface of the river, but speaking to the engineer it will take months (perhaps a year) for the whole remediation to be completed. Quite a scary thought

Clean up operation on the banks of the Rio Coca

9000 bottles of Dasani (Coca-Cola) await distribution in the Navy Headquarters in Coca

The visit to Payamino was relatively uneventful. I saw and spoke to Lucio and a couple of other people and Ali and Sumiko seem to be doing as well as they can with the resources they have and support they are getting. On the way back we stopped to see a Puma cub (Puma concolor), which had been caught by the people in Payamino and given to the settler community of Campo Alegre as a tourist attraction. One of my ideas for my book project is to look at the illegal pet trade. This being a blatant example of it. This afternoon we visited someone who kept a "tigrillo" (Leopardus tigrinus) in their back yard with the chickens. It was good getting the contact of the mayoress, since I was able to tell her about my idea of the book. Next time I come to Coca I will try and show them a proposal and see whether they can help me with some contacts.

Puma in Campo Alegre

Tigrillo in a chicken coop, El Coca

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:42:00 +0000

Quito

I arrived yesterday morning after a long flight with surprise stops in Bonaire and Guayaquil. The flight was relatively uneventful. The usual chitchat, some sleep and "No Country for Old Men" did it for me as far as entertainment goes.

Breakfast of Champions

I met Santiago (Villamarin), the curator of entomology at the Museum of Natural History in Quito (MECN), for lunch. He is supposed to be coming in April and I had been nagging him last week to get all the information for visa requirements from the British Consulate. Turns out he's been having to deal with the aftermath of Ben Samphire's tragic death (see previous post) because the Museum was their official Ecuadorian counterpart. There's bits of scattered information, nobody really knows what happened. Communication with the Police has been difficult and the other person accompanying Ben Samphire has left the country (can't blame them for that). So it seems to be somewhat messy. I am going to the consulate with Santiago this morning so might have some more information later on.

I saw this article in this morning's edition of "El Comercio" about a massive oil leak (+/- 21000 gallons) from a burst pipe in the vicinity of Santa Rosa. The CONAIE, the indigenous federation declared a state of emergency in all the zones affected by the leak.

Location of the Spill

Approximately 47 communities living on the Rivers Coca and Napo have been affected by the leak and there's currently an investigation and impact assessment being done. Apparently the water in both rivers is completely polluted. This is a big, big leak!. I am heading down to Coca today and I have some time this weekend so I will try and make down to see whether I can take some photographs before heading to Tena for the meeting with the Ministry of the Environment, the DED and Gran Sumaco Project.

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:24:00 +0000

Good News and Scary News:

I have been busy trying to finish a few things before heading out to Ecuador again. A paper that I submitted to Conservation Biology needed to be revised, some of the data had to be re-analysed and I spent the best part of two weeks getting my head around the new analysis and re-incorporating all the suggestions the reviewers had made. I also had to make sure that I managed to get a letter of inquiry ready for a grant we want to submit to the MacArthur Foundation. So things have been a bit stressy.

My aunt sent me an email today, telling me about a young scientist doing research on howler monkeys, who was mistakenly shot and killed in Ecuador. This is the article that appeared in yesterdays edition of the International Herald Tribune, which is slightly unnerving. Apart from the fact that this is a great tragedy, I am not sure what to think. It's not anywhere near where we work but people in rural areas have guns, that's a given. I guess my health and safety tip for anyone working in the field is to make sure we tell people who we are and what we are doing. One benefit of doing the social science as well as the biology part is that our research is inherently linked with people and we make sure that we always get consent from the people we interview and who's land we will be on. I guess these stories make sure that you are extra carefull.

On the brighter side, the doctor gave me the all clear on my back. I started getting sharp pains in back while in Ecuador a few months ago. I just thought that it was strain of lifting heavy equipment, particularly things like gas tanks which I reckon can be about 35 - 45 kg when full. They continued over christmas and when Nathan was diagnosed with the flesh eating disease leishmaniasis I though it more prudent to get it checked out. Misty (my partner, who is a medical doctor) agreed. I got a set of x-rays done and a scintigraphy, which is when they inject you with radio-active dye and then photograph your skeleton to look for abnormal bone activity. Anyway, both the x-ray and the scintigraphy came back ok, which was a relief and the doctor said that the pain was probably muscular.

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:11:00 +0000

It's official I fly out to Ecuador on the 2nd of March and return on the 14th. Although the meeting is only on from the 9th - 11th I want to make use of the time to tie up a few loose ends and photograph a few things that I didn't get the chance shoot on the last trip. I also found a new blog today! It's published by the NY Times and is called Dot Earth. It is written by Andrew Revkin with the support of grant from the Guggenheim foundation (I wanna get me one of those someday). The blog makes an interesting read. One entry in particular links in Lydia Polgreen's piece on infrastructure development in Gabon by looking at road networks in the Brazilian Amazon. One of the latest entries looks at armed conflicts and environmental protection after reading a recent paper published in the journal Conservation Biology. Revkin's entry makes the very valid point that as natural resources start to dwindle, global warming kicks and more people start to migrate as a consequence conflicts, might intensify.

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:05:00 +0000

On Data

In many cases quantitative information relies on statistical interpretations to highlight trends in what seem to be a bunch of abstract numbers. Most people will probably encounter statistics when faced with election polls or census data. In the run-up to the US election statisticians for both the democrats and republicans where most probably vetting the odds of winning the election by taking into account a whole bunch of 'voting' minorities; the African-American vote, the womens vote, the latino vote, the youth vote etc... They were probably asking questions like: what is the likelyhood of Obama wining the state Ohio if he gets 86% of the womens vote in, let's say, the state of Colorado? Or, what is the likely-hood that Latino women will vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin? Latino women, obviously falling into the categories of both women voters an Latino voters.

Statistics is daunting and getting a grasp of it as quantitative scientist is, (un)fortunately compulsory - depending on whether you are the graduate student who is tearing his hair out in frustration or the public who rely on politicians taking (or not) the advice of the scientific community (see the preCOP9 conference in 2008 where scientists strived to make some recommendations to the parties taking part in the meeting).

Although statistics relies on mathematical equations to define the odds of an event happening or a relationship existing, they also depend on graphs and figures to display statistical trends succinctly. Perhaps more importantly, because we are a species largely relying on our eyesight, it is important for our understanding to display these results visually. And here lies the problem. In many cases graphs and figures are, to the untrained eye, illegible. The British government and many Universities (see this for one of Manchester's attempts) are trying to spur scientists to take a more active role in engaging the public and making science more accessible to wider audiences. When speaking to my friend Paul (Finn) about my idea for a book about my work in Ecuador I was struck by his interest in data and visually representing data. Paul is a graphic designer who loves fronts (listen to this if you want to laugh at him expressing his love for fonts to the BBC's Saturday Live). Talking to him made me realize that there is not a lot of stuff out there, specifically aiming to look at data and focusing on it's visual representation, particularly in the natural sciences. The NY Times does very well at exploring new media and data and I have selected three pieces which I think are very good.

> The Ebb and Flow of Movies

> China's Environmental Crisis

> Election Day

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:03:00 +0000

There's an interesting piece in today's IHT by Lydia Polgreen. The title of the article is "Profiteers turn to an African Eden". I have tried to look it up on the IHT website and the NY Times but no luck - perhaps it will be there tomorrow. The article highlights the role of extractive industries (e.g. mining, logging and oil) in conservation. While it makes use of Gabon as a recent example to underline the effect of infrastructure expansion road construction by companies working in remote places is nothing new. Oil companies in Brazil and Ecuador, for example, have been doing so for decades. The newly built roads usually provide access to formerly inaccessible areas. Their construction is usually followed by rural migrants who claim frontier land and settle down to farm, often with dire consequences for the environment. There's a very good article by Tom Rudel in the scientific journal Human Ecology. It makes for an interesting read if you want to know more about the subject.

Road construction in the Province of Orellana, Ecuador (2006)

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:33:00 +0000

Status Update:

It is now mid january and I have been back in Europe for the best part of a month. Since my return things have been somewhat hectic at home and I have spent my time jetting back and forth between Brussels and Manchester, and being neither here nor there for the most of it. The end of the field season went extremely well. Nathan and I managed to finish gathering all the data and our time in Chontacocha was exceedingly productive. We managed to cut and sample all the transects and do all of the household interviews in half the time we spent in Payamino. I have slowly been crunching my way through the data. The idea being not solely to figure out which places are more biodiverse than others but to determine whether we can look at socio-economic variables such as agriculture and use them to try and predict the state of the environment.

I am flying back to Ecuador at the end of february to take part in a meeting organized by the German Development Service, the Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment and the Sumaco Proyect. They are currently trying to set up a research network of all the people working in the Gran Sumaco Biosphere Reserve and the National Park. It should be interesting since there a few universities and research institutions that work in the area. I have been asked to present some of the preliminary results and also meet with the Minister of the Environment, which is quite exciting.

The Gran Sumaco Periphery

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 13:46:00 +0000

1 Community Down:
One community down, 135km covered on foot, 10hrs of interviews, 13 transects, 130 beetle traps, 130 cuadrats, 130 canopy photographs, 650 identified ferns, 250 frogs (or thereabouts), more 7500 beetles (conservative estimate) and roughly 350 GPS waypoints. So far so good after two months worth of work. Snake count: 20, 16 poisonous and a close encounter with one of them in our hut. And despite the fact that I work on issues related to conservation, I am happy to say that our relationship with that snake ended badly for the snake which left in pieces (courtesy of Nathan´s machete handwork). I also had a botfly (now bagged and tagged in alcohol) which as far as I am concerned has been the closest encounter with biodiversity (of which there seems to be to much on more than occasion...). The last month has been the most hectic we sampled a more remote sites and the logistics have difficult, particularly getting our guids organised and present. But all is well that ends well and I am happy with the amount of data we have managed to get. Now we are spending a couple of days in Coca, enjoying beer and food that is not rice and beans. We should start heading out to the next community next week, which should be interesting to see and hopefully the logistics should be easier since we will have a guide with us constantly. Nathan and I are also better at identifying things and now we are pretty sure we can work faster, doing two transects back to back with a day of rest afterwards. Yesterday was interesting, we visited a site impacted by an oil leak, which was interesting to see, how they were cleaned up, although it seems to me that in these cases it is more of a botching than an actually clean precise art. That´s it for now... more soon...

Oil worker

Oil

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:47:00 +0000

With a belly full of ants:

The last couple of weeks have been good and working as usual. Life in the community is good and rather quiet and uneventful. Nathan, Lucio and Benjamin (my research team) and me have basically been banging out transects for the last couple of weeks and things have been just plodding along. Day 1 usually starts with travel to the site where we will be doing a transect and getting an interview. Day 2 we cut the transect, collect the ferns and lay the beetle traps. Work usually starts at around 9 or 10 depending how far away the site is and usually finishes at 4. Then its back to the community to put the ferns back in the press after which we usually start prepping for the next day. Day 3 we start at the same time as the previous day and walk the transect looking for frogs and collecting the traps. We finish at about the same time as the previous day and then we wait for a couple of hours and walk the transect during the night. We usually have 1 day of downtime to get everything back on track and then start again.

The days are long and involve alot of walking. We did 18km the other day. Nathan and my fitness levels are pretty good at the moment and working at 28 degrees and 90 percent humidity is not so much of an issue any more. We are planning to be finished with the 1st community at the end of october and then it is on to the next one. Where we are not entirely sure.

The highlights from the last two weeks have been eating queen leafcutter ants which are really good and very more-ish as well as having to eat large weavil grubs raw. The raw grub i was less excited about. It´s not the taste as much as the texture and the explosion of the wriggleing grub in your mouth when you bite on it. I have to say that I prefer them barbequed. Ali and Sumiko the guys from Glasgow that come and take care of the project in the community are a laugh and we get on very well.

We were also witness to the community voting for the new constiution, which the current president of ecuador, Rafael Correa, is trying to put through. The whole things was pretty interesting. The voting process was observerd by the military and the police. A couple of rather insalubrious soldiers and two very happy-go-lucky, friendly policemen arrived by helicopter a couple of days prior to the voting. We made friends and charged their mobile phones for them, which I think bought me the right to take some photographs. The voting itself was rather uneventful. During the day people trickled in to cast their vote and nothing happened. The ballots were organised by the community members and the votes were counted too. Overall, the community voted with a clear NO despite the fact the in the end the new constitution was approved. I think whole thing was a shamble, nobody really read the old constitution or the new one, and as a consequences nobody really understood the changes and the whole thing was more a vote of support for the president, rather than an informed one. That my opinion anyway.

Lucio, his wife and eldest son.

Counting the vote

The `Dream Team´

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:10:00 +0000

First Two Weeks in the Field:

So, Nathan and I are currently back in Coca - and just about to head back into the Jungle. The first two weeks have been busy, very busy and both Nathan and I have seen and witnessed a whole deal of things. Once we arrived in Coca from Quito, we got all of our supplies and headed up to San Jose de Payamino for a wedding. We arrived with the Party in full swing. We did a bit of dancing and a bit of eating (not sure what it was - some kind of bird which had been cooked/cremated for the occasion) and a lot of drinking. Everybody was incredibly welcoming and happy to see us ... the men kept giving us drinks and the women invited us to dance. All of this to a soundtrack of an ever repeating CD which was being blasted through a PA that had seen better days. The whole affair seemed very cheery except for the fact that the we witnessed as half of the party getting paraletically drunk. It was actually a very sad state of affairs with several people passed out lying on the floor. We managed to get away after a couple of hours and fell asleep to the muffled music on repeat. Funnily we woke up to the same soundtrack, which had not stopped. At about 11am I made my way back to see the aftermath, only to find that the people had not stopped drinking and were downing spirits ... This basically went on till 3 o`clock in the afternoon when the generator ran out of juice. I am not really sure how I feel about the whole drinking thing... Most of you who know me, know that I enjoy a drink or two and have seen in more than sorry state... but this was on another level.

The amount of drinking that was done was not really right and I am not sure how much of it was in celebration and how much of it was in despair. Although people were cheery throughout the night, people seemed to laugh through sad eyes. There is a lot alcohol related problems in many communities and unlike the North American Indians, for whom as far as I know, the concept of alcohol was foreign until the colonization of the US, here alcohol is deeply entrenhed in the culture and you get offered a bowl of chicha (manioc brew - once tasted a 1000 times shy) which is alcoholic. It is part of the social fabric. Development or money in many cases just offers access to stronger (and more palatable) forms of alcohol... so, who can blame them really. The problem is that, the alcohol in the communities does have a hard hitting and sometimes tragically devastating effect, and although I refuse to hold any judgement on the matter, I wonder whether Nathan and I were direct witnesses to the effect of this.

The day before yesterday, Nathan and I were going through some of the samples, when Lucio (our guide, coordinator of the project and a very good guy) came to we are staying telling us that they were in mourning, Whimper, had sadly passed, away having fallen from his canoe and drowned. He asked us for some torches and said that we should come with them to go and pick up the body. He also asked me to bring the camera to photograph the whole affair (something I felt I had to confirm several times) ... It was very sad and shook me to the core, we arrived at the beach, where Whimpers body was lying on the rocks, - a group of people sorrounding him and and his wife Lucy, wailing and obviously completely devastated by the sad event. We took the body to the communal house, where it was laid on a table, changed into dry clothes and surrounded with candles. Whilst I refuse to pass judgment on the events, I have to admit that I wonder what state Whimper was in. People know how to handle themselves on in the river, and whilst Lucy seemed to be sure that he had been sober the person that he had been was far from sober. I cannot and do not want to confirm the circumstance of his death, but I do wonder... again, I refrain from passing judgement, largely due to respect to both Whimper and his family - who have been very good to us ...

Our trip to Coca was thus tainted by this tragic event. Lucio, Vladimir (Whimpers 12 - ? - year old - who has been stoic throughout), Nathan and I had to go pick up a coffin first thing and saw them off to go back for the funeral. We will try to make it back today and take things from there. I am aware that the image that I have painted is the one of a community of alcoholics. This is of course a false and unintended. Most of the community does not drink in excess and for many alcohol is not an problem or an issue. On the other hand it would be naive and wrong to deny the fact that the reality exists, and turning a blind eye to these things, particularly when one is trying to work alongside development agencies is not only careless and and false romanticism, it is dangerous and morally inexcusable. That is my personal opinion. I have thought long and hard about the consequences of documenting this but I believe that not doing so and painting rosy pictures is false advertising. Things are what they are. Problems have roots and in most cases solutions. The question is, can you make those solutions a long term goal and put the things in motion.

The sad things aside, workwise the whole things has been great. Nathan and I have been working well together alongside Lucio and Benjamin and our sampling of the community has been going very, very well... We have seen quite a few things in the forest. Poison dart frogs and venomous snakes are amongst the highlights. Although Benjamin and Rafael made sure the snake did not remain poisonous for very long. Nathan and I were not sure, how to react, stating we would rather not kill it... but we again we couldn´t really tell them what they should and shouldn´t do.

The photographs are going very well... The community are happy to be photographed (including the tragically sad parts - getting consent has not been an issue) and I think I should have enough material for a book. My friend David (Straight) suggested I have another look at Trent Parks' Minutes to Midnight which is truly fantastic. Anyways, I switch of here and show some photos (click on them for larger versions)

Drinking 'Peach' Wine

The Newly married couple

Whimper RIP 14.09.2008

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:20:00 +0000

Changes in the Ecuadorian Immigration Law (and it's aftermath on me)

Visa Application

Nathan and I have been stuck in Quito for the last few weeks waiting for all the visa paperwork to be organized and processed by the immigration office. It has been a real pain and both of us have been itching to get back into the jungle and start doing some work.

On the 20th of June, Ecuador opened up its borders to everybody, meaning that everyone from no-matter what nationality can enter the country on the T-3 (Tourist 3 months) visa. This is all fine and dandy, however, this has also meant that any prolongations and extensions on tourist visas have been scrapped. Largely to a massive influx of Chinese and Colombian migrants (El Comercio 27.08.2008). This has also changed the way in which the government deals with other types of visas.

When I arrived to the Visa office two weeks ago, I panicked... A very, unhelpful clerk with the same dull personality as the run-down and yellowed walls of the immigration office basically told me to leave the office and stop bothering him with all sorts of questions relating to possible visas... I jumped into a cab and went straight to the Natural History Museum to accost Santiago, one of our collaborators who told me that the Museum would be more than happy to sponsor me... all I had to do was to write a formal collaboration agreement between the Museum and the University. Luckily Richard (my boss), was still in the Galapagos and would be passing by Quito in a couple of days, meaning that the agreement could be signed by him. After sitting around for a couple of days the agreement was signed I was able to get all the documentation I needed from the Museum (copies of official records, legal papers, visa requests, contracts, declarations etc...). All had to be sanctified by a notary... so I rushed to the notary office who told me to go back to the Museum and get the copies stamped by the Secretary to basically state that they were true copies. After getting all the stamps I went back to the notary got the stamps, I jumped into a cab and headed drove to the immigration office, where I was told that the paperwork would be reviewed and to come back on thursday. So today I got the answer, I have to go back tomorrow to pick up the visa... so hurray... but it has been a major pain in the ass, having to run back and forth to the Museum and notary... i had to get a public record, copied, stamped as being a true copy and then notarised... I mean come on, it's a public record, any public office (including the mighty ministry) should have access to these...

During this time Nathan and I have basically been getting fit (at the gym) - and yes this makes sense, sport at 3500 m is a pretty good way to make sure we don't collapse from doing 8hr of trekking in the jungle (which is hot and humid)... going to museums and eating lots of meat and prawns - all of which will now be over since we are leaving tomorrow afternoon to Coca...

Quito by night

View from the Taxi

Quito Shopfront

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:56:00 +0000

First Couple of Weeks in the Field

Visiting the Shaman

Fishing

On the Boat with some fish

Cloud Forest

Waiting for Moths

Back in Quito for a couple of days sorting things out before heading back to the eastern lowlands. The first couple of weeks were pretty fun. We spent the first couple of weeks in the Cloud forest at about 2500 m. Fieldtrip staff were Richard, Jenny, Misty, Conrad, Emma and Me and we had a good group of students including two from the Catholic University in Quito. The cloud forest was good fun, very lush and very foggy and sometimes very cold. We met Nathan, a tall, blond and very friendly American chap who then accompanied us to the Jungle. He has also agreed to assist me in the field so we will be three including Olmedo, who is Kichwa and who has agreed to act as guide and translator to the communities we want to sample. Our stay in Payamino was good and very hectic. Misty was faced with some acute field-medicine experiences, including a lady who needed an operation in Coca and an old man with respiratory problems. The operation was an ordeal to organize and getting blood in Coca is not an easy thing, particularly if you get social services to pay for it... but we managed to get the 6 pints of blood and the lady is now recovering in the hospital (I have mostly been shooting film and not digital so pictures of all of this are not available). The old man decided not to go to hospital and opted for the Shaman. Misty and I were both invited to assist and it mostly involved lots of ayahuasca, palm wafting and sucking away the evil spirits (all in total darkness) and the old man seemed to have regained some of his appetite after that. The students did well in their project and this time round things did not seem as hectic as last time. Quito is fun and Nathan and I have been running around buying supplies and equipment to take bacjk out with us early next week.

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:36:00 +0000

Arrived in Quito !!

Somewhere between Manchester and London

My Yotel Pod

Approach to Quito

The train journey from Manchester to London was relatively uneventful. I met Larissa and her sister Saskia (both of whom I have known the 29 years of my existence) for a couple of drinks and then made my way to Heathrow on the tube to access my pod (www.yotel.com). 4 m2 of pure practicality. Despite a very comfy bed I didn't get to that much sleep. Partly due to the exitement and partly due to a sliding door which kept opening and closing. After a complimentary bottle of water from the chekout desk I made my way to Iberia counter in Terminal 2 to check my baggage in. The ady at the desk politely informed me that I had been upgraded to Business Class for my flight from Madrid to Quito. How civilized is all I could think of. After rushing through adrid Airport I installed myself in my fully automated seat the size of our livingroom couch. After complimentary champagne ( I was torn but ended up going for the water - I know I was lame) I had a look at the menu and opted to feast on the smoked tuna and gazpacho followed by the pigs knuckle and quince main course which I devoured alongside the sommelier's choice of red wine. I finished with the rasperry sorbet. I entertained myself playing with the chair and watching a couple of movies, had some real sleep and dreamt that I would never have to fly cattle class again! Whilst in the toilet I realized that the set of pants my parents gave me had a big rip down the bag. I must have looked like a total hobo prancing around the business class cabin in little more than a loin cloth. I passed immigrations without a hitch and checked into the Hostal Vagabundo, which I had stayed in previously. I am now sitting in the Magic Bean (a horrible tourist hang out saved my the fact that they have free wireless and amazing smoothies and milkshakes) downing a banana-milkshake and munching on sme ibuprofen and paracetamol to get rid of a splitting headache... Life is hard (sigh) ;)

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:24:00 +0000

The Storm before the Calm:

I have been scratching my head lately as to what to take with me on my journey. 6 month's is a considerable amount of time and considering that I have a full research schedule makes the idea of traveling 'light' fly straight out of the window. I am having to provide my own electricity to be able to recharge a computer, a camera and an ipod (which I will use for both interviews and to ensure that my own sanity, stays more or less intact. Needless to say, I am questioning the sanity part when I think about 6 months of self-imposed exile. Richard, my boss, is a little bit of a gadget freak ( and this is a massive understatement - I am sure he agrees) has come up with a cunning plan to attach a set of solar panels to a motorbike battery and then use the charged battery to power all the electronic equipment. I haven't got the slightest clue as to how to do that but I am sure I will learn rather quickly. Anyways, here's a list of things that I will be carrying around with me...

2x Solar Panels (already in Ecuador)

1x Motorcycle Battery (still to buy in Ecuador)

1x Power Inverter (still to buy)

1x MacBook

1x MacBook Powerlead

1x Extra Macbook Battery

1x 160 GB iPod

1x iTalk microphone

1x small Sony Stereo Microphone

1x Nikon D300

4x Nikon Batteries

1x Nikon Battery charger

1x Nikon 17-55mm f2.8 Lens

1x Nikon 10.5mm f2.8 Fisheye Lens (For Canopy Analysis)

1x Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 Zoom Lens

1x Sigma 2x Teleconverter

8x 2 GB SanDisk Extreme III Memory Cards

1x Nikon SB600 Flash

1x Flash cord

1x Voigtlaender R2 35mm Lens

60x Rolls Ilford HP5

1x Small Tripod

16x Rechargeable AA Batteries

16x Rechargeable AAA Batteries

Battery Charger

1x Head Torch

1x Mini Maglite AA Torch + LED converter

1x Small camping cooker (to buy in Ecuador)

1x Cooking ware

1x Camping Cutlery

1x Kestrel 4500 weather station

1x 20m Tape Measure

1x Satellite Phone + Charger

1x EPIRB

4x Longsleeved T-shirts

3x t-shirts

3x Combat Trousers

7x Pairs of Underwear

5x Socks

1x Jumper

1x Sandals

1x Shoes

1x Rubber Boots for the actual Jungle

1x Travel towel

1x Swimming shorts

1x 50% Deet Spray

1x Permethrin Spray

1x Mosquito Net

1x Sleeping Bag Liner

1x Hammock

1x Thin Sleeping Bag

1x Sleeping Mat

1x Water Bottle

2x Waterproof Notebooks

1x Notebook

1x First-Aid Kit

1x Snake Anti-Venoms

1x Wire-Mesh for locking Bags (usually don't use these when traveling but considering the amount of expensive equipment and the fact that I might have to leave all of this in unlocked places for hours or days I thought better safe than sorry)

1x Online Banking Equipment

1x Leatherman

1x String

1x Bandana

1x Hat

1x Sunglasses

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:13:00 +0000

new website:

slightly overdue but hey late is better than never...

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:04:00 +0000

Colonist Woman near el Coca

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:17:00 +0000

El Coca Street Scene

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 23:24:00 +0000

the earth's navel:

0'0'0' degrees... mitad del mundo... killing time... before flight LAN 1443 to Guayaquil...

noreply@blogger.com (Johan) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 14:28:00 +0000

Rainy day in Quito

I have spent the last couple of days running around trying meet people at the Pontífica Universidad Católica de Ecuadot (PUCE) and seeing various other people from NGO´s and Museums. It has been raining relentlessly. I spent a couple of hours walking around the old town in Quito trying to find some Alpaca wool for Misty (without much success) and got soaked to the bone. It´s that kind of drizzly rain that hangs in the air and makes sure to get into everything. The Carnaval starts this weekend. I had originally planned to visit Ambato but have not been feeling to well so I have decided to stay in Quito until tomorrow, when I am due to fly out back to Buenos Aires before heading back to Manchester. Let´s see whether there´s anyhting exiting happening.